Okay here's how it works. Just post everything you like, love, hate, or would change about Nintendo. Are they doing well? Could they be doing better? Do you enjoy their products, and if so which one. Just have fun with it!

My only gripe currently is with my Animal Crossing City Folk game... I was really disappointed in a few "features" of it.

For instance I was under the impression that we'd be able to create buddy lists where people would be able to visit your town and vice versa, even when you weren't actually on playing... so you could be sleeping and other people could be visiting your town and leaving you things etc... and even if other people weren't playing, as long as their Wii's were on you could visit their towns etc... but then it was NOTHING like that. You not only had to actually make sure they were ACTUALLY PLAYING, but even then you had to make sure that they opened the gate in their town SPECIFICALLY to invite you in... and then if for some reason the wifi connection dropped while you were visiting, it was erase everything since your last save etc...

I'm just really really unhappy with that mess.

Then there is the new "Animal Tracks" feature... which is supposed to make it so that the grass will wear away where you normally walk and make little paths to show where you most frequently walk... and it will grow back if you don't walk on it for awhile.

In REALITY almost your entire town gets reduced to a giant desert before you realize what's happening, and then not even 6 months later is it grown back. So in the winter you can't make snowmen... and you have to avoid playing the hide and seek games etc.

But aside from that... I have Zelda Twilight Princess and love that, and I have Wii Fit Plus and love that too... (and Wii Sports).. so I'm not really complaining about the Wii so much as the one game in particular.

I also have a Gamecube, and a DS Lite and like those too. I have a bunch of games for my Gamecube and really enjoyed most of them. Metroid Prime, Eternal Darkness, Mario Sunshine, Zelda Wind Waker, Zelda Four Swords, Mario Party 5 etc. (And I loved my SNES, and even my original NES very much... and my original Gameboy... but I never owned an N64 or any of the intermediary gameboy iterations etc.)

I don't really care one way or the other about their gaming consoles or the games for them, but as a game developer, I wish their development kits were better. I can't go into further details, though, 'cause I'm under a nondisclosure agreement.

I remember when I was a kid (well... in many ways I still am one) and I wondered what it'd be like to develop games for Nintendo systems. Now that I know, I kinda wish I didn't know.

OK, here's one thing about Nintendo that I'd change: bring back the SNES! Seriously. I'm a diehard retrogamer, so the SNES basically represents all that's good about gaming to me. (And in a year the damn thing will have its 20th birthday.)

I've heard that XBOX 360, while being the biggest piece of garbage console, actually has the easiest to work with SDK. And the PS3, while being arguably the best console power and quality-wise, has the hardest to work with... and I never really hear much about Nintendo's... they're just kind of lower powered and middle of the road or something.

Actually, I love my Xbox. The Netflix integration and online play are excellent. We keep our Xbox on quite a bit--mostly for Netflix. I really should dust off the Wii, but we ran out of A/V inputs to our TV and plugging it in is just too much work.

clay wrote:Actually, I love my Xbox. The Netflix integration and online play are excellent. We keep our Xbox on quite a bit--mostly for Netflix. I really should dust off the Wii, but we ran out of A/V inputs to our TV and plugging it in is just too much work.

Well, as most people who own them say (as long as they're still working), they're happy with them (like at least 2 other friends of mine). But they are inferior to the PS3 in terms of processing power, although the 360 has a better GPU it seems, but also have a MASSIVE failure rate. Something like 20% or 30% (or much higher) by some estimates. So if yours is still working, you're lucky.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6216691.html reports the failure rates "Xbox 360 failure rate 23.7%, PS3 10%, Wii 2.7% - Study", which puts the XBOX 360 at almost 10 times the failure rate of the Wii, and more than double that of the PS3.

Like I said... If yours still works, you're lucky. I won't deny them the due credit on their SDK... but the console itself is basically junk. (although supposedly the brand new ones being released are more reliable now)

Not to mention that ideologically I really hate them for why they made the XBOX in the first place... which is solely to try to find another avenue of vendor lock-in etc.. because to develop for the XBOX, not only do you need the SDK, but you need to have the Windows Operating System to run it on, and the Visual Studio development suite as well... so you're paying for the OS it runs on, the SDK itself, AND the programming environment to develop it in etc... all of which is money going into their pockets... Which then also allows them to generally harness even more revenue streams by locking the games into a proprietary Windows only API (DirectX etc) so that the games are far less likely (if possible at all) to be ported to other (competing) operating systems like Mac or Linux etc, and other consoles. Thus hurting their competitors while profiting themselves.

The whole thing was done to try to upset the field, wreck open graphics formats (get people to use DirectX rather than OpenGL or a system specific format for easy development) and lock people into their system from more angles by leveraging their de facto monopoly powers (write 1 game, sell on 2 systems, console and PC, double your money and more money going straight to MS)... taking heavy losses on the consoles themselves because they know they'll just make it up from those other vectors which all lead back into their pockets in the end, and all while hurting the competition by getting the developers to invest in a system that will force them to continue developing for XBOX or Windows based PC in order to get a return on investment for the development platform etc.

(Not to mention MS doing things like paying $50 MILLION to keep the PS3 from getting the GTA IV episodic content and making it exclusive to the 360 to try to keep more people away from the PS3... (mind you, that's HALF of the ENTIRE COST of the entire development of GTA IV, which was around $100M) and that because the 360's are such garbage, they're starting to slump, including their lack of Blu-Ray and being tapped out on performance potential whereas the PS3's are just starting to come into the full potential of their much stronger processors etc... with XBOX basically milking the money it charges for the XBOX Live subscriptions and all the peripheral money it makes from OS and development suite sales, downloadable content over it's for pay network, etc.)

So yeah... kudos on making a great SDK. Boo and hiss to making a garbage console developed solely for the purpose of poisoning the gaming ecosystem, increasing profit, and killing off the competition by leveraging your bloated behemoth of a company in anti-competitive ways in order to lock companies into your proprietary web and out of others in yet another business sector.

I know Clay might see no problem in such business tactics as wonders of the free market or whatever... but I see it as crooked, insidious, and bad for everyone but MS in the end as they lock people in to their system so that they can get away with offering inferior products by leveraging their overwhelming war chests and control of the market etc... which is all done to even further lock competition out and lock consumers in so that they can continue to offer inferior products in a perpetual cycle.

In an internal memo for senior management Microsoft's head of C++ development, Aaron Contorer wrote:The Windows API is so broad, so deep, and so functional that most Independent Software Vendors would be crazy not to use it. And it is so deeply embedded in the source code of many Windows apps that there is a huge switching cost to using a different operating system instead... It is this switching cost that has given the customers the patience to stick with Windows through all our mistakes, our buggy drivers, our high TCO (total cost of ownership), our lack of a sexy vision at times, and many other difficulties [...] Customers constantly evaluate other desktop platforms, [but] it would be so much work to move over that they hope we just improve Windows rather than force them to move. In short, without this exclusive franchise called the Windows API, we would have been dead a long time ago.

The XBOX is nothing more than another tentacle to reach out and pull people into that API and further their stranglehold of ubiquitous inferiority.

*deep breath*

*exhale*

(I also own 2 PS2s, both of which still work, years later... and my GameCube, which still works... and even my ORIGINAL NINTENDO still works... well over 20 years later.)

nes360.jpg (107.07 KiB) Viewed 5480 times

(Not my picture, just a funny one I ran across recently.)

What can I say? I just really hate Microsoft. And I've always loved Nintendo, even if they've almost never had the "most powerful" system. They've generally made quality hardware and fun to play games consistently. They come across as a company that cares about you having fun first and foremost... not about monopolies, cutthroat tactics, profits before all else, and trying to milk trends etc.

Maybe it's just the nostalgia of my youth...

Oh, and let's not forget... Wii is outselling both PS3 and XBOX. Maybe there is something to the idea of a cheap system that just focuses on fun new ways to play games.

What gets me is the repetition of the same string of games, over and over again on each console. It feels like Disney with their straight to DVD sequels (oh yes! let's go buy Aladin 4: Jafar may need glasses). My Wii has been collecting dust for a little over a year, until I figured out how to "alter" it to play Japanese games. Still nobody talks in any of the games... As for Xbox 360, I've just sent it in for the second time. So reliability AND good game play is too much to ask for. God-forbid, has anyone seen the trailer for the new Zelda game, "Spirit Tracks" coming out, featuring link as a ...train conductor (looks like)?

I still haven't played through the copy of Zelda Phantom Hourglass I have because it's in Japanese beyond my current level. So I'm not sure how I feel about the stylus-centric games like that on the DS Lite.

I don't mind some of the ongoing series... like the Zelda games, the Metroid games (I've beat Metroid, Super Metroid, and Metroid Prime now) etc... even the Mario games (I personally loved Mario Sunshine and have beat that at least twice now. Honestly the only Mario I've played so far that I didn't care for was SMB3 oddly enough).

Nintendo consistently makes enjoyable games we look forward to. Some of the Zelda games for instance have been some of the best games ever made... Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Link to the Past, etc. In fact I've played through Wind Waker 3 times now I think. Still only half way through Twilight Princess though... I played a good portion of the way through on the GameCube and then later purchased it for the Wii, which has all the maps mirrored from the GC version... so it was disorienting to play. So I figured I'd wait until my spatial memories of the maps faded a little and it wouldn't nag at me so much.... then I'd finish it.

And I remember looking forward to the next MegaMan games with great anticipation!

This generation is the first time I've ever bought a non-Nintendo console (namely PS3). I have a Wii as well, but with Nintendo's lazy/stubborn/penny-pinching attitude more prominent now than ever, I just couldn't justify it being my only console. I'd be missing out on too much: decent online infrastructure, larger downloadable games, downloadable content, trophy/achievement support, and epic third-party titles only released on HD systems (Heavy Rain, Uncharted 2, Metal Gear Solid 4, Final Fantasy 13, etc etc).

Especially recently, Nintendo seems to do merely what is necessary to continue making profits, and not much more. They're doing very little to make me actually want to support Wii as a console. I don't buy much other than Nintendo games (which are indispensable >_>) for it; Wiimote doesn't sell me on most third-party titles. There have been a couple exceptions - Zack&Wiki was good, and I think Bit.Trip Beat couldn't have been done as effectively with an analog stick. But mostly for third party games I just feel like the game was reduced in quality by having been released on Wii. ._.

(I loved Super Monkey Ball 1 & 2 on GameCube. Hated Banana Blitz. Want my extremely precise controls and nerve-wrackingly thin platforms back. Prefer the old art style too. )(Why is the new one going to use the Balance Board ... I can only imagine how imprecise that'll be... are Sega intent on killing the franchise? )

DS is kind of another story entirely. I don't really consider it behind-the-times, and I think the trade-off of graphics for touchscreen was utterly worth it in the majority of cases. I've bought so many games for that system. Knights in the Nightmare is my latest favourite.

(I have lots of ongoing franchises I like, and so do many others, so they'll continue being released and continue selling. But I think there have been enough brand new games/concepts recently (which will probably end up as franchises ) to balance it out.)

If I could afford a PS3, I'd have gotten one. I like the systems, I like the controllers, and they have such a variety of games and other features like you said... but it's just been out of my price range.

(Plus if I were to get one, I'd hunt down an original release one that actually had the hardware PS2 support, and upgrade the hard drive in it myself... which just adds to the hassle.)

My original Xbox did get the Red Circle of Death, but they exchanged it promptly and I haven't had a problem since. In my experience Microsoft has been very good. I do love my Wii, but I just haven't played it in months. If I had boatloads of money and no mortgage, I would get a PS3 in a heartbeat.

EDIT: I just wanted to mention a cool feature on the Xbox I didn't know about. Today was Makoto's 4th birthday party and I wanted the TV to display a slideshow of his baby pictures. Just on a whim I searched the Xbox for USB ports, found two in the front, and stuck a USB thumb drive in and seconds later, I had my slideshow. I knew I could connect to my computer through Windows Media Center, but I hadn't had much luck with getting the Media Center to work right.

I have been watching their shameless and illegal acts for years and it's built up a strong hatred in me for them.

Apple is getting just as bad, if not worse today, but they are much smaller and can't afford the same types of abuse or I am positive they wouldn't hesitate to do the same kinds of things (and still have been trying anyway it seems).

I've had to deal with the results of Microsoft's actions for years in relation to things like their pushing Internet Explorer on everyone which then left us to languish in IE6 related web development hell for years after the browser was long outdated and the standards had moved on because MS kept bundling their trash browser with their OS. It wasn't until the situation grew so horrible that people started making the switch to FireFox en masse that it finally prompted MS to take notice and start working toward revamping their browser... and even then IE7 was only a modest improvement, IE8 a little better, but still vastly slower and with worse standards support than any other modern browser... and not until IE9 will they even start to be more on par, and even then they'll still be the slowest browser, but at least should be up to standards compliance finally.

It is this kind of abuse by Microsoft of existing systems due to their large size and cash reserves due to pushing themselves into more and more business niches to further strengthen their network effect... path dependence... vendor lock-in etc... that enables them to "embrace, extend, and extinguish" open standards that would otherwise be working to the benefit of everyone involved and especially the consumer etc... all in the aim of forcing people into dependence on their inferior products which people will then continue paying for in spite of the inferiority and lack of real improvements over time because the short term cost of migrating away is too high, in spite of the long term gains that could be had by abandoning such a crooked and inferior system.

This kind of crooked business practice held the development of the web back by several years, and hurts other fields in the same while as Microsoft uses it's semi-monopolistic entrenchment to keep clawing its way into more and more markets, using the income from other established revenue sources (like Office) to bleed out and bankrupt competitors by offering their products at unbeatable prices as "loss leaders" in order to kill the competition and use the new market as more revenue for further anti-competitive conquest.

Now I realize I'm straying far from the topic of Nintendo in my rant... but it's hard to talk about Nintendo, and thus today's consoles without covering precisely the kind of situation we're left dealing with due to the introduction of Microsoft and their crooked business practices into the arena which very likely is having a direct effect on the way in which Nintendo has been forced to run its business.

I've had every system Nintendo ever made (except the N64 and the various later generation game boys) and I've always been happy with them. Right now I have the Wii and the DSlite and there are tons and tons of fun games for both systems, including a bunch of really enjoyable study aids for the DS.

With a baby and housework and whatnot I don't have time for marathon RPG sessions like I did in my younger days (I think I once played FFVII for something like 16 hours straight) but both Wii and DS are good family systems that you can enjoy in short bursts and with people of all ages. Just for that they get my vote, although they're probably not as satisfying to hardcore gamers as other systems.

When I noticed tons of shops around where I'm living in Japan selling older systems and games for decent prices I got all excited and went on the hunt for a SNES, but could not find one. I kept scratching my head going, "what the heck is Super Famicon?" until I realized they were the same thing, haha. No square box with purple switches on it here... still I've been spending my winter break down memory lane playing all these old games I used to love, in Japanese, its great. It blows me away how hard a lot of these older nintendo games are. I blew threw Mario Kart on 100cc until I got to the Special Cup at which point the game decides it will do everything in its power not to let you win a race. What also blows me away is browsing through all the PS2 games. They offer way more games than I've ever seen in the states. This might seem like common sense, but I just mention it because at some places it seems like it would take hours just trying to browse through all the games they have, and some of them are around 90 dollars. It's crazy.